Why Do We Moisturise Our Bodies Briskly Rather Than Sensually, And What This Has To Do WIth Emotions




This question was posed in a blog post which, if you understand German, you should absolutely read. The answer was: because it is dangerous. Feelings may bubble up that we don't want to feel. During our lives we push away feeling we don't want to feel, and these get stored in the body.

Touch can release those feelings. Most of us aren't really good at actually experiencing feelings. Maybe we have been taught that negative feelings make others uncomfortable, or we have never learned how to experience them without getting carried away by them.
So we learned to push away the feelings. And they get stored away in our bodies, in the fascia.

The negative feelings we store in our bodies may be big hurts and traumas, but they may also be also smaller things. Big and small fears, difficult childbirth or nursing experiences, bullying, heartbreak, work stress.
When I am in a tense situation I can feel the stress creeping up my back and shoulders, and my fascia feel tight and knotted under my hands. Yet till now I never stayed in the moment with the emotion to actually acknowledge it and let it flow away. So it just got stored there till it built up to pain and migraines.

The negative emotions stored in the fascia can (or feel be released in many ways: through touch, movement, massage, concentrating ourselves mentally on the aching body parts. That is why it sometimes happens that people randomly feel overwhelming waves of emotion or break into tears during yoga, massages or even random theatre exercises.
This is also the reason why we crave the touch of others.
It is also the reason why it can be so hard to give real attention to ones body (something I plan to write about in the next post).
And even though it isn't easy, it can be so freeing, when you turn your full awareness towards your body. Whether it's a body scan meditation or moisturising your body after a shower, sensually.

It can be helpful to have someone to talk about anything that may rise up. A therapist, a supportive friend or even a journal can be helpful.


On a similar note I have been reading Intuitive Eating recently, which is a really revolutionary book about reconnecting with your body's needs and learning to understanding its signals.

Id love to know your feelings on the topic, and if you can recommend any books to me on the topic I'd be really grateful.

Photo by Cristian Newman


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